Supreme Court hearing challenge to NI abortion law

​The case fell at the Court of Appeal- but the women were granted permission to bring the case to the Supreme Court.

A Supreme Court challenge to allow women from Northern Ireland to access NHS-funded abortions is currently underway.

The appeal is being brought by a mother and daughter who travelled to England for the girl to have an abortion when she was 15. Last year theCourt of Appeal ruled that there is no legal obligation on health services in England and Wales to provide publicly funded abortions which would be unlawful within Northern Ireland. They were granted permission to appeal to the Supreme Court, and the hearing is taking place today.

The Supreme Court granted six pro-abortion organisations the right to intervene in the case: Alliance for Choice, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, Birthrights, the Family Planning Association, Abortion Support Network and the British Humanist Association have been granted permission to provide their perspectives on the case.

SPUC comment

Liam Gibson, the development officer for SPUC in Northern Ireland said: "A bad decision in this case would not only lead to more children being killed by abortion, it will also have serious implications for the rule of law and the value of Northern Ireland's devolved institutions."

Mr Gibson said he believed that the case was being pursued by the English abortion industry in order to sustain or increase abortions on NI women. "This case is about organisations like Marie Stopes, which could increase the number of babies they kill - and likewise their income - if they get NHS funding for more abortions. Despite enormous pressure from the pro-abortion lobby the number of Northern Ireland women seeking abortions in Britain has dropped to nearly half of what it was in 2001.

"More and more people, and not just in Northern Ireland, are appalled by the culture of abortion which has taken root in Britain where around 98 percent of abortions performed on vague "mental health" criteria that Department of Health research suggests fall short of legal grounds.. The British Government has even been ambivalent about ending the scandal of sex-selective abortions where babies are targeted simply because they're girls," said Mr Gibson. "Women in crisis pregnancies don't need free abortions, they need help and support so that they don't feel they have no choice but to kill their babies."